Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Can I trench some sediment-fill out?

Our pond is now 3+yrs old. For the most part everything is doing well. Pond is about 1/3 acre, 18ft in deep end and down to 4-5ft in the shallow end around the corner(kidney shape). It is stocked with FHM, LMB and blue gill. We are going to start aerating this year. Ok, on to the question. Like everyone else we have learned some lessons. We had to fix the inlet because initially a lot of sediment was flowing into the pond. Now it has a pool 100 yds up where the water/sediment collects from run off and runs down a 4" pvc pipe to the pond. Now I just clean the small pool out yearly as opposed to all the sediment going into the pond. We also tried a beach but had it on the wrong side. In heavy rains a bunch of sand got pushed into the shallow end. We have subsequently removed all the sand and planted grass. So this year I was wondering if there would be any issues with renting a small excavator with a 30" trenching bucket and just removing some of the sediment that washed into the shallow ends of the pond. My neighbor has a small 5 ton dump I could borrow where I could load it, drive it away and dump it when full. I am not looking to do anything in the deep end just the area where the runoff initially came in depositing a bunch of sediment, and where a bunch of sand got washed in. I would say maybe 12" in a 12x12ft area, and then the shoreline from the old beach. I wouldnt be going anywhere near the deeper waters so im hoping that water wouldnt be disturbed too much for the fish to initially retreat too. what do you think?

It can be done, but you need to be careful not to disturb the clay liner of the pond (if you have a clay liner, or any kind of liner for that matter).

The pond is all clay/hardpan, there is no artificial liner. Im not looking to dig at all, just scrape these areas to get this fill out. I was thinking the large 30" flat-edge bucket would be good for this without disturbing the original bottom too much. I always ask this, because for some reason "worst case scenario" always finds me, but is there any real damage I can do to the pond bottom? I'll get in there with a shovel before I ruin anything if I have too!! In my head this is a nice and easy 1/2 a day job.. Boy have I made some doozies out of those!!

Just don't dig too deep!!!